My Most Interesting Winter Season
by iGuard
Summary: Makenna Walker is your colorguard girl. At her team's first competition they realize that they are in for a battle if they want to get the gold this year. Makenna has a problem though. Like having a huge crush on one of her competitors!
1. Chapter 1

He was beautiful. There was no other word for it. I couldn't keep my eyes off him. My school's four color guard teams were at our first competition of the winter guard season and my team and I were scoping out the competition after our lunch. Our cadet had already gone, they always had such cute shows, I thought smiling slightly. Our SRA went on a little after that. We did our school cheer as they set up and they did pretty well for first show.

Now the SA2 guards were starting to perform, that's what my guard's class is. We didn't have to get dressed until 1:52, and it was 12:47 so we decided to watch one more guard and then go get dressed. The one we were watching was from Shelton and there about twenty five people on the floor ranging from about 13 to 16. Their floor was a light brown with what looked like a huge, red Celtic cross that took up almost the whole floor.

The announcer stated that they were from Shelton and they were performing 'Wheel Around The Sun' then said the instructors, director, and show designers. As they set, I noticed their different kinds of flags were dark green with wide gold metallic circles and a dark crimson flag with a metallic gold curve. Three of the people were guys and the rest were girls.

The first one, who was walking towards the far corner in the front with a girl his age, looked 16, too old for me to drool over, though apparently not for the older girls on my guard. The second one, who looked 16 as well, was ugly. The last one was hot. He looked 13 or 14 and had his jet black hair gelled up in spikes and almost braided on the side of his head like the two other boys.

He had brown eyes, and the red face paint only accented that. The dude was tall with brown pants and sleeve-less v-neck shirt that fit him well. I was sitting in the front row in the back where the performers watch and I think he noticed me staring at him when he set his red flag only inches from my black Uggs. He stared into my eyes for only a brief second and before he turned to go to his begining position with his rifle, I saw his mouth tug at the corner.

"Oh my god! He's sooooo cute, Makenna!" exclaimed my friend Shannon next to me. I felt my face burn as I turned my face to her.

"Dibs!"

"No fair!" she sighed. "I suppose I'll just have to find another cute guy who can spin something besides a pencil. Where I going to find one here?" Shannon said jokingly. We don't hve any guys on our guard,but there are always guards around that have guys. I laughed with her.

"You poor thing! Why don't you try him?" I said, gesturing to ugly guy. She made a face and laughed again.

"No way!" Then we both shut up because the music was starting. Though it was clear the oldest boy and that girl were doing a dance solo, I couldn't drag my eyes away from the boy with jet black hair. I could see exactly how his moves were done and how he prepped them, but I couldn't see how he could move so gracefully, not making any noise as his feet hit the floor from the endless tosses, turns, and spins. The music sounded almost Scottish or Irish, and was fast and hypnotic like he was.

The rifle line he was spinning with suddenly threw a moving triple that the person next to them caught. The entire front of the gym and scattered around the back burst into applause, including me. Shannon snickered and whispered to me; "Your boyfriend is so graceful!" I giggled against my will. Older girls from behind shushed us.

I felt as if I could feel the adrenalin even though I wasn't performing. My guy picked up his green flag as the sabers came in. It whipped around fast and in a blur, the tosses high and many. He threw his green flag to a girl with the same outfit and face paint, her hair in numerous braids, and then ran towards me.

I was a little confused and then I realized he wasn't running towards me, but the red flag he had set in front of my feet. He smiled brightly at me with white teeth clashing beautifully with his black hair and olive skin tone. Somehow I felt he was smiling more for me than for the judges at this point. He bent down to grab his flag then only walked about a yard away from me. I felt rightfully unsafe! I've been hit in the head with a flag more times than I care to remember.

Still, his guard's final flag feature was awesome. A few people got out, but their recovery was okay. The feature ended with a 180 to the back then throwing their flag on the floor and reaching towards the couple in the center who were back to back looking up. Everyone clapped and few even jumped up.

"Whoa," Shan said, looking at me. "They were pretty good."

"They were awesome!" I said looking at my guy who now looking at me. He smiled and winked before running to grab his equipment, high fiving some of his team mates.

"They are going to be hard to beat." one of my team mates, Katlyn, said with a slight frown as she finished clapping. I thought about the show. Yeah they were good for first performance, but they had the regular first show drops. Not that my guy dropped. Besides we're good too. Shannon just smiled and said;

"What's a good winter guard season without a little competition?"


	2. Chapter 2

"Come on, guys, before they get the floor out!" Shouts Melissa, girl in tenth grade on my team, as we jog around the people from Shelton who are folding their floor. My feet catch on the edge of the floor and I start falling. Instead of smacking my face on the floor, my face smacks into what seems like a very hard, very warm, and very tall random brick wall in the middle of gym.

I glance up then glance back down at my feet blushing. It's that black haired dude! Gosh, he is even cuter up close! He's just standing there, griping me by the arms, and smiling this wiry smile.

"Watch your step," He says, in this incredibly deep voice. I imagine what he would have sounded like if he had a high pitched voice instead when he said that. Then I choke back my laughter as he lets go of my arms. They suddenly fell really cold.

"Thanks, you guys were good." I say, my voice cracking. Damn my blushing! I clear my throat. He grins at me.

"Thanks. You guys going on soon?"

"Yeah, make sure you watch. Makenna, here is really good." Shannon says, coming from behind me and pulling me toward the door our team is exiting.

"I can't wait," He says, smiling at me and then disappearing out the door. Shannon tugs me towards the other door just as the next guard is coming in.

"What was that little moment about?" Shannon demands, after we catch up with our group.

"Nothing." I say, quickly. Shannon has a hopeful look in her eye.

"You were flirting!" she says, pointing and looking at me with her huge electric blue eyes. Her caramel ringlets are in a messy bun, making her look more deranged that ever. She looks like she just found out I stole from Fort Knox.

"Dude! Not so loud! I don't even know how to flirt!" I relpy, looking to see if anyone had heard her. We're in the room by now, getting our garment bags out.

"Mack," Shannon says seriously, taking me by the shoulders. "You're 14 and you've never had a boyfriend. This could be your only chance!"

"I resent the statement on my romantic dilemma." I say, smacking her arm, turning away and start to get dressed. I have red brown layered hair, green eyes, and freckles. I would compare myself to a string bean. So, yeah, I guess I wouldn't say I'm pretty.

"Fine, be in denial." She replies, with a wave of her hand. Suddenly there is a knock on the class room door.

"Who is it?" calls Taylor, as we all freeze.

"It's us!" One of the 7th graders on the team shout from behind the door. Kim pulls the door open a crack and the four of them pile in here. We all continue getting dressed. Shannon brings it up again while she waits for me as I reached in my bag of junk for my make up and hair brush.

"Hey, can I use your mascara and stuff while we're in there?"

"Sure," I relpy, pulling out a water bottle and tossing it back in, grumbling at my lack of organization.

"I wonder what he'll think of our uniforms." She says, staring me down. Our uniform is a gray sleaveless v-neck with stripes of brown and black fabric hanging off that we tie in different places. I find my make up bag.

"Why don't you ask him?" I respond not missing a beat, as we walk out the door in search of a bathroom.

"I might," Shan says nonchalantly. We finally find the bathroom after stalking Hailey and Jess and talking about dinner choices, what we thought about our world guard's show this year, and school gossip. When we walk in I see other girls, from a guard probably performing before us, rushing to grab everything and talking about being late getting to their room.

Our make up is brown lip stick and silver glittery eye shadow with a black eye liner wing on the outside of the eye. After about 10 minutes of putting make up on (including one lipstick smear war) and putting our hair up into buns we run back to the room.

Ashlyn, an extremely short 8th grader like me and Shannon, is freaking out looking for a pair of flip flops to wear walking over.

"You guys don't happen to-"Ashlyn rambles frantically, practically tackling me.

"Ash! I have an extra!" Shouts Viviane from across the room, victoriously holding up a pair of black flip flops I see were going to be way too big on Ash's tiny feet. Ashlyn looked so relieved and releases me from her clutches.

"Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU!" Ash yells sprinting over to Viv and snatching the shoes like they're her babies. Then she tackles Viv in a bone crushing hug that someone as small as her shouldn't be able to accomplish.

"And I thought the pills were working…" I say, shaking my head and smiling. Jess laughs and goes to talk with Brenna and Riley, the 'twins' on our team. We have 18 people on my team alone. Suddenly Heather and her husband Steven come in. Heather is our saber instructor and helped design our shows. Steven was our flag instructor and he came up with all the routines for the SA2 with Ethan, our director.

"You guys ready for this?" He asks, in his usual gravelly voice. We all say "yeah." or nodd. "Good. You guys should be excited about this. Remember what we talked about at rehearsal this morning. Pointed, turned out feet, stay in time, and perform. Remember that we change that triple to a double, sabers." I groan. I know why we're at doubles, that doesn't mean I have to be happy about. "Have fun with this you, guys. This is your first show so you're bound to be nervous, but don't be because the crowd is out there cheering for you guys."

"I thought I heard someone forgot their shoes at home through the grape vine. Do you have yours, Ashlyn?" Heather asks teasingly. Ashlyn blushes.

"Yes, Heather!" she says sheepishly, holding up the borrowed shoes. Everyone laughs at her expense. We all talk for a while and joke around while Heather and Steven talk in the front. Then Ethan comes in.

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1." He yellls, as everyone scrambles into their respective chairs and shuts up. Ethans' a tall grizzly guy who looks like he might be a professional hockey player instead of a color guard director. If the guard were all siblings, and the coaches like loving aunts and uncles, then Ethan was it's father."Now we are going out in the hall to stretch; after I want you all to back in here quietly and grab your equipment. No talking." With that we all rush to our feet and go out into the hall with Heather clapping stretch for us.

We all stretch, then go into the classroom to grab our stuff. We have smoky flags that faded from white tip to black silk and the second one was black with metallic dark blue streaks and brown streaks running through the fabric.

When we streched a guy had delivered flowers, bead necklaces, and candy from our families and friends. Everyone almost immediately went for the pile except me because my parents never came and I didn't many close friends outside the guard. Liz's voice cacthes me by surprise.

"Kenna, you've got a secret admirer!" she yells, out holding up a sunset, orange rose. A bunch of girls laugh.

"What?" I ask confused. I walk nearer and snatch the flower from Liz. It read: _'Sit with me at dinner? –D' _

"What?" I sat again. "Okay, jokes over. Who's pulling my leg?"

"I think this is pretty legit, Mack." Shan says, dragging me over to a cluster of chairs that we had set our stuff by.

"Well, then who starts with 'D'?" I ask iritated, giving her the note. She studies the offending bit of paper and shrugs.

"I don't know, looks like a guy's hand writing, I guess," I start hyperventilating.

"You're kidding right? What do you mean a guy's handwriting?" I practically shout, leaping up from my seat.

"Oh! What if it's from that dude?"

"Don't kid your self," I rip the letter off and stick it into the pocket of the dark denim skinny jeans I had worn before. Just then Ethan comes in.

"Alright ladies, it's time to go," We grab our flags and weapons, then smush our way out the door into the hallways.


	3. Chapter 3

We walk down the maze like hallways of Greener, the high school we're competing at, and wait outside the doors of their auditorium, listening to the sounds of the team inside finishing up. Before Shannon has the chance to start up the subject of my 'admirer', the door opens.

We all follow our coaches in. Katlyn eyes the other passing team apprehensively and in an intimidating way, while everyone else exchanges 'good luck's.

"All right, get in the ending flag feature." Heather says, and we clamber up on stage. "150 drop spins on the right," She shouts and we set down our other stuff. " Ending flag, you guys." She looks right at Melissa who has her black faded flag. "Ending flags." Melissa realizes her mistake and picks up her blue, brown, and black flag, blushing. "Alright, right shoulder. 5, 6, 5, 6, 7, 8," She claps the initiation counts and then the sounds of clapping and the swish of silk fills the air. You sort of go into this daze hile you spinning, where your whole world is centered in on those claps and counts, letting muscle memory take over your limbs.

"140. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 150." We all shout in unison catching on 150. Then the same happens on the left side. After we're done with flag tech we split into weapon blocks and tech that. We then slowly walk out to a small gym were we tech some dance and then work on tosses. In between the tosses everyone chats with each other and before Shannon can bring up the note, I deliberately ask about Jake her 5th boy friend since the beginning of the school year.

"You're toss is too high, Shannon," Heather said, who was going over the saber technique with us. "Release here," She says, putting her arm in a right angle.

"K," Shannon replies. She concentrates for a second then releases. Her angle is better this time, but there isn't enough torque and, though Shannon puts her hands out aggressively to catch the blade, it comes down straight. Shannon is rewarded with a new bruise.

"OW, OW, OW!" She whisper/yells, clutching her hand.

"Suck it up! Be a man!" I say, laughing. "I can't wait to see what you name this one at dinner!"

"I think I'll name it 'pain in the a-'"She starts angrily, but then Ethan interrupts.

"'Pain in the-'what, Shannon?" He says smiling slightly trying to look stern and failing.

"Uh… butt?" She says uncertainly.

"I thought so. What an unfortunate name for your bruise though," We laugh with him, glad he isn't mad.

"Alright," Ethan shouts out to our team. We all clump around him in an awkward half circle. "We are going to wait outside the gym while the guard before us performs. I want complete silence. Is that understood?" We all nod or say yes, completely serious. "When you exit the floor you'll be leaving throught the door on the right, closest to the audience."

"And lighten up you guys," Heather says, "This is your first competition. We got a lot done this morning and yesterday. Just relax. This is your time to shine you guys. Now is the time to perform," With that we walk to the gym and stand in the narrow hallway with a low ceiling, that is crowded with us and parents of other guardies some by the cart that holds the floor, others carry back drops and bits of stairs and platforms.

After what seems like a few seconds, the other team finishes and the parents go to set up our floor as the guard before just finishes folding their floor. Heather pulls us into a group. "What should we say?" She asks us.

"Hmmmm, 'Jello'?" Offers Viviane.

"All for 'Jello'?" Asks Heather. None us can think of anything else, so no one objects. "'Jello' it is. On three," We all put are hands in."1 ,2, 3, JELLOOOOOO!" We all yell as loud as we can. Everyone one of us bursts out laughing. "Now take those beautiful smiles out on the floor with you!" She says, and we all walk though he doors. I clutch Jess and Kim's hands tightly and then let go saying 'Good luck'.

"You, too," They both say and we go set up. I have a solo in the begining were I start on a ramp on the back left corner and everyone faces me. It's a moving flag solo that I learned last practice because Ethan decided that something was wrong with the way it was before. I was happy with it. Not that it matters. It's not like I'm nervous or anything. ME? Nervous? Never.

After setting my saber and end feature flag, I go to my ramp only to see that 'D' is sitting right in the front row, in front of it, looking pleasantly surprised. His make up is still on and his hair isn't undone, making him look exotic even in his jeans, high tops, and white t-shirt. Me, NERVOUS? Not even a little!

... Oh, who am I kidding, kill me now!

**This is an author's note. I changed the last two chapters a little because I had a major brainstorm and it didn't go along with it. So there are a few little changes. Just a few. Well, Review soon!**

**3**

**-IGuard**


	4. Chapter 4

Our show and song was called 'Innocence' which is by Avril Lavigne. I listen to the announcer as he rambles on about our show and I lay down on the ground with my knees pulled up against my chest and wait fore the show to start. I start my dance from where I start by slaying my body out flat on the ground the first note of music.

**Waking up I see that everything is OK  
The first time in my life and now it's so great  
Slowing down I look around and I am so amazed  
I think about the little things that make life great**

I make eye contact with 'D' and see that he is watching me intently. I reach down and pick up my brown flag.****

I wouldn't change a thing about it  
This is the best feeling

Four dancers join in with me as I continue my solo, making my way to the front right corner.

**This innocence is brilliant  
I hope that it will stay  
This moment is perfect**

Everyone else steady gets up to grab rifles or flags as the chorus goes on.

**Please don't go away  
I need you now  
And I'll hold on to it  
Don't you let it pass you by**

The four original dancers grab their flags and the flags and I do a feature as everyone else grabs rifles.****

I found a place so safe, not a single tear  
The first time in my life and now it's so clear  
Feel calm, I belong, I'm so happy here  
It's so strong and now I let myself be sincere

I go drop my flag off behind a back drop with several other girls on my team and watch as the rifles do their duet part.****

I wouldn't change a thing about it  
This is the best feeling

I grab my saber and hear Shan whisper to me, "Looks like someone likes what they see," I blush and see "D" looking at me. He smiles and gives me a little wave before Shannon hits my arm panicked as we step off and to do our saber feature.

****_**[Chorus]**_****

It's a state of bliss, you think you're dreaming

Everyone picks up their blue flags and start the routine as we exit to grab ours.

**It's the happiness inside that you're feeling  
It's so beautiful it makes you wanna cry**

We come back and join in.

**It's a state of bliss, you think you're dreaming  
It's the happiness inside that you're feeling  
It's so beautiful it makes you wanna cry  
**

We have dancers on the sides and back come in and we split into trio flags groups.

**It's so beautiful it makes you wanna cry  
This innocence is brilliant  
Makes you wanna cry  
This innocence is brilliance  
Please don't go away  
Cause I need you now  
And I'll hold on to it  
Don't you let it pass you by**

Everyone who doesn't already have their blue flag gets it and I climb on the center platform with my red flag. They are three rows set around the platform and they are all circling it till they get to their spots and throwing each other flags.

_**[Chorus]**_

As the music fades, I throw my flag to Kim, everyone dances to their beginning groups(including me) and on the last note, I fall on my knees at the end of the ramp with one hand reaching out and the other on the ramp facing the corner.

I'm having a hard time catching my breath from the adrenaline and just when I think we'll never get the applause we worked for the gym bursts into loud roaring claps.

Glances up I see D standing and clapping like mad. I grin and jump up to grab my stuff.

"Well, done you guys!" Ethan shouts as we go to fold the floor. Yea, well done, I think I find my eyes wandering back to D who is grinning back at me.


End file.
